7:00am Sunday 5th July 2009
By Faith Eckersall
UNLIKE many of the mega-celebs who have prematurely shuffled off this mortal coil, Michael Jackson will have left those organising his funeral with no difficulty working out if what they’re organising is What He Would Have Wanted.
In 1992 Jackson told an interviewer his send-off would be “the greatest show on earth”, saying: “That’s what I want. Fireworks and everything.” In other words, something big and lavish.
So far, all we know is that there will be some kind of memorial event in LA on Tuesday. Rumours of a lying-in-state in a glass coffin at Neverland seem mercifully wide of the mark but that hasn’t stopped fans scrambling for tickets and hire cars to whisk them to the remote ranch that was Jackson’s home.
One fan blogged on the newly-created michaeljacksonfuneral website that she has: “Already booked one flight and had to cancel, I want to go over and say a prayer.” Thousands must be doing likewise.
What the fans will expect is some kind of spectacle reflecting the high regard in which Jackson was held by those who admired his music.
As giant celebrity funerals go, the Jackson family has plenty of styles to emulate. They could dispatch him in the manner of Elvis, with a cortege of Cadillacs through the streets of his home-town and a burial in his garden.
They could opt for a gangland-style send-off with extravagant floral tributes, as witnessed at the funeral of New York Mafiosi, John Gotti.
If they look across the pond, the Jacksons might be tempted to go for a People’s Princess affair, as organised for Diana, Grace of Monaco and Jade Goody, with giant screens and much civic acknowledgement of the place they held in the national affection. Then there is Dead Russian President – a dour affair lasting many hours and involving much silent marching, sombre music and the parading of the cadaver in an open coffin.
Glass coffins have already been mooted for Jackson and while that may seem vulgar and distressing to us buttoned-up Brits, putting the departed on view is more common abroad. Indeed, it was only two years ago that the corpse of the late Godfather of Soul, James Brown, was laid in his coffin for press and public viewing.
US Professor of Sociology Jacque Lynn Foltyn told a conference at Bath University in 2007 that: “The celebrity corpse is a voyeuristic spectacle in the infotainment era.”
Whatever Jackson’s family decide, it’s probably vital that they do inter or cremate the star and lay him peacefully to rest.
The fate of the few celebrities who haven’t been afforded this respect is actually rather sad. The corpse of the iconic Argentinean First Lady Eva Peron ended up being lugged round Europe after plans to display the embalmed body for eternity went wrong, following a change of political regime.
And the internet is awash with gruesome images of the 85-year-old embalmed corpse of the Russian leader Vladimir Lenin – and even more gruesome allegations about what has happened to his remains during his annual spruce-up.
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